I was almost ready to work on one of my other projects in
the WIP box, or finish pulling all those pics of my cell phone from the Alapaca
farm to post here.

But eventually even I had to accept that you just need to suck it up and
just face those problem projects head on.

What was I stalling on? That cute and impossibly bright
summer top for my older niece. The first
one just sailed by easy-peasy. The second one seemed to, but then things
started to go wrong. And I was so excited to make these shirts (the pattern is
just perfect for them) which only made me more irritated with myself for having
problems.

I suddenly was running out of every yarn I reached for. And
the colors weren’t at the store anymore. I ended up having to change my color
choices a few times.

I started out wanting a multi bottom, solid belt and multi
top. By the time I got to the belt I realized I wasn't going to have enough
multi left for that, so I decided for a yellow belt and top.

And speaking of the belt - the button mods I had notes
copied down for looked like gibberish when I sat down to follow them.

After finally figuring out what I was doing and getting
through the belt, I wasn't having confidence in having enough yellow for
that. Soooo it got a blue panel in the
middle.

I was happy with how it looked, coordinating but not too
matchy with her little sister's. But when I got to 3/4 done with the straps I
ran out of yellow. At least I was doing them two at a time, so they ran out in
the same spot. I thought about changing to blue at the bottoms, but that might
have stood out too much.

(and if you’re still following this, I give you a gold star)

I let the shirt sit for days. In very-nearly-almost-done
limbo.

I did have a little bit of the multi left, not as jarring a
color change as a block of blue and matching the bottom. I thought it might not
look so bad, and couldn’t think of a better option.

Finally I decided to go for it. Figured I had nothing to
lose, and it's not like garter stitch is all that hard to rip back.

And you know what? In the end I actually like how the shirt
came out.

The color change that had me so worried is right where the
straps cross, so it's just about the best spot to run out if I had to.

I might even be able to pull it off as intentional. At least
I’ve decided not to talk it down to my sister before sending her the shirts.

Oh, and now that I’m feeling more accomplished by actually
finishing things I’ll be starting on that Alpaca pic post